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Any Wade Hampton student knows that when they miss a day of school, the next day they have to get an admit slip in order to come back to class. This policy is practically pounded into the heads of freshman as a fundamental part of missing school. However, it is no secret that the original policy had its flaws. Fortunately for students and teachers alike, there is a new admit slip policy that went into effect the first day of the second semester.

The main problem with the admit slips was that they were truly detrimental to a student’s time in class. If someone forgot to get their slip before they went to class, they needed to leave class to go pick one up. However, at the same time, if someone waited in the never-ending line in front of the attendance office to get their slip, there was a very good chance that they would be late to class. “One of the things we would see with 1750 students was that kids were waiting in line every morning to get admit slips.” says Principal Eric Williams, “So inevitably, they weren’t getting to class until 9 o’clock, and they were missing valuable instruction time.”

Another problem with the slips was that they had become increasingly outdated. With the school’s PowerTeacher program, there is already a record of when a student misses class. Therefore, there is no real need for the extra paperwork that goes along with admit slips. With PowerTeacher, the teachers, parents, and attendance clerks know when and why a student misses class.

Of course, with any change in policy comes an opportunity for problems to arise. One concern that administrators have is how responsible the students will, or will not, be. Before the change of policy, students did not really get to choose whether or not they would go to the attendance office and turn in their excuses for their absences. Now, there is nothing in place to make sure that students turn the paperwork in. In essence, a student could miss school because of a doctor appointment, then forget to turn in their school excuse, and it would go in the system as an unexcused absence.

This policy change also means that there is a chance that more students will be subject to seat-time recovery if they forget to turn in their medical excuses. However, there are very few Wade Hampton students that will complain about this new policy, especially because it means no more waiting in that awful line in front of the attendance office in the mornings.